Week 4

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – SO LONELY IN HEAVEN (CD by Metropolis Records)
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – CHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL VOLUMES 23 & 24 (CD, private)
TORGEIR VASSVIK & JUHANI SILVOLA – WHITE (CD by Eight Nerve Audio)
MARANATA – UGLY EUPHORIA (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
TRANCE MAP – HORIZONS HELD CLOSE (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
DENNIS PALMER – WHITE WUFF (CD by Public Eyesore)
EMAD ARMOUSH’S RAYHAN – DISTILLED EXTRACTIONS (CD by After Day)
FOSTER BENNETT WICK – CARNE VALE (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
DAVID CORDERO – POSTALES (CD by Dronarivm)
ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO – NUNC (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
STYLIANOS OU – VUKOLIKA TRAGOUDIA (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
NLC & WOLF CITY – TURNING SHADOW INTO TRANSIENT BEAUTY (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
TACET TACET TACET – FICKLE (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
STRAPPING YOUNG BUCKS – O (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)
SVEN PHALANX – NAVIGATION (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)
STOLEN LIGHT – UNPREPARED GUITAR (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)
THE HATERS – PUINHOOP (cassette by Korm Plastics D)
PACIFIC WALKER – BLESSED IN THE CHAPEL OF THE TEARS (CRYING) (cassette by Bluesanct)
O.R.D.U.C. – EU24 (cassette by Motok)

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – SO LONELY IN HEAVEN (CD by Metropolis Records)
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – CHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL VOLUMES 23 & 24 (CD, private)

Up until this point, I always assumed the Legendary Pink Dots made a more significant, official release every few years or so on the occasion of a new tour in Europe and America, sitting next to a bunch of more minor releases of a more experimental nature, for instance as part of the Chemical Playschool series. Of the latter, volumes 23 and 24 were released just before ‘So Lonely In Heaven’ and usually come as a duo pack. I listened to both several times in the past weeks and realised there might be very little difference. The lines between a ‘big’ and ‘minor’ Legendary Pink Dots release seem to have disappeared. Is that a good or bad thing about either of these releases? Does it mean the dots became more experimental in the more significant releases? I don’t think so, as the 12 pieces on ‘So Lonely In Heaven’ are high-quality songs with typical dots elements: atmospheric guitars, weird samples, a driven sequence/rhythm section and of course, Edward Ka-spel’s voice, instantly recognisable, mesmerising and poetic. When I recently heard a much older release, I concluded Ka-spel’s voice aged and sounded ‘wiser’ and ‘mature’, but maybe also darker at times, even when he calls himself ‘the ever optimist’. I can’t pretend to understand his lyrics, as I don’t know what it is about with all lyricists. Great songs, but are they much different than the ten songs on ‘Chemical Playschool 23 & 24’. Sure, some of these songs are prolonged or even consist of songs within a song. Still, the core trio of Ka-spel, keyboard player Randall Frazier and guitarist Erik Drost deliver the goods in a similar concentrated, well-produced format. There is as much experiment here as on ‘So Lonely In Heaven’, even with guest players Quintin Rollet (saxophone, percussion) and Tom Hagerman (violins, viola, string arrangements and accordion), so the colour and texture may offer a bit of variation. Maybe that’s where some of the experiment comes from, but with the saxophone, it sounds more like older Pink Dots music when Niels van Hoornblower blew his part. Sometimes, the passages are instrumental, which is also a difference, but I see all of these as relatively minor details. It’s all of similar high quality and has over two hours of excellent music. You couldn’t tell the difference if tracks from both albums were mixed up and played in random order. Experiment and song go hand in hand on both albums and both are excellent. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.metropolis-records.com/
––– Address: https://legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com/

TORGEIR VASSVIK & JUHANI SILVOLA – WHITE (CD by Eight Nerve Audio)

Following various solo releases by Finnish guitarist Silvola, there is now work with Torgeir Vassvik, who plays Joik vocals, guitar, munnharpe and govvadas (Sami Drum) and is from the Sami region in Norway. According to the information, he is a representative of the Sami second wave of music, especially the coastal Sami tradition. You might not be surprised to learn I have no knowlegde of Sami music. Silvola plays prepared guitar and electronics, and he calls his work ‘Avant-folk aesthetic’, avant-garde music inspired by folk music from the Nordic countries in Europe. In the past, I expressed my lack of knowledge about any of this, but all the same, I received this collaboration, which doubles the question marks above my head. “This joyous and ritualistic Sami-Finnish-Norwegian experimental encounter, traditional Sami melodies are developed into animistic avantgarde Joik Noir, a new type of music, where the past reaches out to the future”. But one should be aware of this past, and I don’t know. They recorded the album together in the studio, with a few overdubs. Vassvik’s voice sounds like overtone singing, and there is a bit of rocking guitar behind each of the eight songs. The prepared guitar element and the electronics are a bit lost on me, but maybe that’s the idea. I can safely say it doesn’t sound very traditional, the music that is. What these songs are about, I don’t know; despite their English language titles, the words are in a language I don’t know. It’s impossible to say if I like or dislike this music. It’s music I am relatively unfamiliar with and not something I would easily play. The use of voice is something that didn’t appeal to me, I guess. But, on the other hand, I found something of interest, to know of its existence. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.juhanisilvola.com/vassviksilvola

MARANATA – UGLY EUPHORIA (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Regarding my knowledge of religious matters, I believe Maranata means ‘Our Lord, come’ or something similar (see 1 Corinthians 16:22 if you have a copy of the good book). I couldn’t tell why a trio of noise musicians would choose such a name. We have Jon Wesseltoft on electronics, Dag Stiberg on baritone and alto saxophone, and Martín Escalante on alto saxophone. The saxophone is my instrument of love and hate, but I decided to write about it only when I love it. On top of my head, I think of two instances of saxophone music I loved; one is a cassette by Lol Coxhill and Eyeless In Gaza, and the other is my fond memories of seeing Borbetomagus twice. Maranata is clearly in the latter territory. The first time I saw Borbetomagus, May 1993 in Boston, I was well into noise, having seen Merzbow a couple of times (when he didn’t have the fame he has now, so in front of 40 people at the most), but the two saxophones and a guitar player blew my noise mind completely. I admit that, unlike Merzbow, I never found the same power in their records. This new trio plays a similar kind of noise saxophone music. Maybe Wesseltoft’s electronics make this much louder on record than Borbetomagus (well, from what I remember, if I am honest). He lays a massive foundation of ultra-high and ultra-low end frequencies, and on top of that, the two saxophones produce some of the finest screaming noise saxophone sounds. I don’t know if they use the same kind of feedback/amplification as Borbetomagus, but it has a similar intensity. I don’t know if this is a studio or live recording, but it sounds great. See, I sometimes do love a saxophone! (FdW)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

TRANCE MAP – HORIZONS HELD CLOSE (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Trance Map began as a duo in 2008. Tenor and soprano saxophone player Evan Parker, éminence gris, actually, strike that because an éminence gris doesn’t take the spotlight. He uses frontmen to do the dirty work. And Evan Parker isn’t afraid of dirty work. Ever since his debut (and especially his debut solo record Saxophone Solos from 1978, with him exclusively playing the soprano saxophone), we know he has the endless chops of a true wizard of the soprano saxophone. Endless flurries of notes, with or without added manual effects (slap tongue, flatterzunge), all in one seamless auditory stream of consciousness. On a side note: who really is an éminince gris is Paul Lytton, Parker’s percussive partner in musical crime since 1969. With Lytton, he experimented with the combination of live instruments and electronics. As I said earlier, Trance Map is a duo. The other half of the duo is Matthew Wright. Not the former BBC presenter but Matt Wright, the turntablist, live sampling musician & sound designer. From his site, the following quote: “Evan Parker and Matt Wright met in 2008 and out of their first studio sessions developed Trance Map, an album of over an hour that mixes field recordings, samples from cassettes, turntable scratching and the live processing of Evan’s relentlessly evolving saxophone lines. Since then, the project has developed to include live events across Europe, often involving guest performers such as Toma Gouband, Peter Evans, Hannah Marshall and Barry Guy. A US version of the group (featuring Evan Parker, Matt Wright, Mark Nauseef, Adam Linson and Ned Rothenberg) performed at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in late March 2019. Trance Map+ / Crepuscule in Nickelsdorf (featuring Evan Parker, Matt Wright, Spring Heel Jack and Adam Linson, mixed and mastered by Matt Wright) was released on Intakt in the summer/autumn of 2019. During the lockdown of 2020, Matt Wright made a studio spin-off project, Locked Hybrids, manipulating samples from a studio session at Arco Barco in Ramsgate, UK. Since mid-2020, Trance Map have undertaken ambitious streamed and networked performances, connecting with musicians worldwide from the Hot Tin venue in Faversham, Kent. In late 2022, this resulted in TransAtlantic Trance Map, a simultaneous performance between Kent and Roulette, Brooklyn, released as ‘Maroni’s Drift’ on False Walls Records in Sept 2024.” And now we have Trance Map back to its core duo. Recorded in the same period as Etching the Ether, which documents a US version of Trance Maps+. Apart from the dynamic duo, we hear Mark Nauseef on trumpet and piccolo trumpet and Mark Nauseef on percussion on that record. During mixing that release, Parker came up with the idea of returning to the original duo configuration. Horizons held close is the result of that decision. Wright gave the title, remembering his trip to Mongolia in 2009. There, he had the perception of space and extreme distances with the horizon always in sight. He wanted to convert that feeling into music. Giving the sounds a distant feeling yet at close range and intimate. I believe he succeeded in that goal quite succesfully. Two long-form pieces, each lasting around 24 minutes, with a 6-second difference between the pieces. The pieces are named after locations in Mongolia where remains of dinosaurs have been found. And if you think a duo sounds like two men playing on each channel in the stereo field, think again. This is exquisite music in which Parker takes the lead melodywise. Matt adds counterpoint by manipulating Parker’s input and adjusting the musical parameters, including the placement in the stereo image. Short snippets are interjected, with duration and/or pitch changed. And in the case of the second piece, a booming and pulsating bass is added to the mix. The result is exhilarating, hypnotising and mesmerising. And no, the last two words are not the same thing. Listen to this music with headphones on or in a quiet environment, for the music is quite dense, and there are many, many layers to this music. This release is essential music. Not only in Trance Maps discography, but also in the discography of electro-acoustic music. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/horizons-held-close

DENNIS PALMER – WHITE WUFF (CD by Public Eyesore)

Dennis Palmer left this earthly plane in 2013. This is what I found on Tiny Mix Tapes, which took this from a site called Creative Loafing, based in Atlanta; the original message isn’t available on that site anymore: “Sad news came yesterday when word spread that Dennis Palmer of the Shaking Ray Levis died Friday night. A life-long resident of Chattanooga, Tenn., Palmer, 55, was dedicated to playing and raising awareness about the possibilities of free, improvised music for both listeners and performers. While playing synthesiser for decades alongside percussionist Bob Stagner, Palmer also worked with a long list of collaborators that includes the Rev. Howard Finster, guitarists Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, and Eugene Chadbourne, the Duplex Planet editor David Greenberger, Borbetomagus, John Zorn, and Col. Bruce Hampton, just to name a few. Since 1986, the Shaking Ray Levi Society has functioned as a quintessential advocate for the arts in Chattanooga, bringing diverse music to town, including Anthony Braxton, Cat Power, the Olivia Tremor Control, and Laurie Anderson. Among Palmer’s most recent activities, the Shaking Ray Levis will be featured on a few songs on Duet For Theremin & Lap Steel’s forthcoming CD, Collaborations. There’s also a forthcoming David Greenberger and the SRLs CD, titled ‘Tramps That Go Think In the Night’, and a collaboration with vocalist Shelley Hirsch. Palmer was also finishing a solo album titled ‘White Wuff’.” That last record is now available on Public Eyesore Records. Other personnel on this records are: Jessica Lurie (vocals, percussion, alto and tenor sax, flute & sweet potato (sic!)), Frank Pahl (whistles & banjo), Col. Bruce Hampton (vocals & incantation) and Bob Stagner (voice, drums, percussion, guitar, mandolin & gongs). Bob Stagner was the other half of the Shaking Ray Levis. The music shares many similarities to the music made by Only A Mother, of which multi-instrumentalist Frank Pahl is the founder, especially their record Naked Songs For Contortionists, which I bought on seeing the cover alone and the eclectic range of the instruments used, somewhere in the nineties at the Staalplaat record shop in Amsterdam. It still is one of my favourite records. Shorter songs are limited to two minutes, unlike those on a Bakelite record. Mind you: these are fully developed songs, not just a half-baked idea put to disc. This was already a working method for the Shaking Ray Levis, with even shorter durations. The music ranges from catchy soundtrack tunes (Limpet, Chongo) to the noisier part of the ambient and impro spectrum (My Damey, Man Alive) and everything in between. Ever Loving Normberg features a kind of doom metal, sludge drawn-out demon voice. Quite cool. Just as the rest of this record. This release deserves to be heard by many people. So what are you waiting for? (MDS)
––– Address: https://publiceyesore.bandcamp.com/album/white-wuff

EMAD ARMOUSH’S RAYHAN – DISTILLED EXTRACTIONS (CD by After Day)

Last December saw the release of Emad Armoush’s Rayhan sophomore record. A quintet with the following members: Emad Amoush (oud, ney, vocals); François Houle (clarinet, FX); Jesse Zubot (violin, FX); JP Carter (trumpet, FX); Kenton Loewen (drums) and guest Marina Hasselberg (cello). Especially the addition of Hasselberg’s cello adds depth to the music, not only because of the timbre but also to the lower end of the spectrum. As with their previous release, reviewed in Vital Weekly 1408, Emad takes Syrian traditional songs and sings somewhere after the first half of a piece, one or two verses. Eight pieces, with two originals by Armoush, two by Sayed Darwish, for many, the father of Egyptian popular music and the rest are traditional songs. The quintet has been playing together since 2002, and it shows. The music is of an aching beauty, both melancholy and uplifting. Melancholy because of the scales used and uplifting because of the group’s performance. This is definitely spouse-friendly music. They don’t shy away from experiment, like in the Marriage Party with a rock beat that gradually morphs into polymetric terrain and the melody moulded into the straight-up 4/4 beat and disintegrates into an improvised section, with some nice ambient swirling textures within the background. Then it’s foot-tapping time again. It’s an excellent piece. And now Assad has fled from Syria. Hopefully, the country will get some peace (and money) and time to rebuild their country. And maybe one day Armoush and his quintet (and Hasselberg as a permanent member, she is a great addition) can play in Syria. And maybe there is a place to read the translated lyrics. Because the Syrian traditional songs are all poems set to music, you can look them up on the internet with a little effort. (MDS)
––– Address: https://afterday.bandcamp.com/album/distilled-extractions

FOSTER BENNETT WICK – CARNE VALE (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Ben Bennett (percussion), Michael Foster (saxophones), and Jacob Wick (trumpet). Ben Bennet has made a few duo recordings with Michael Foster with Jack Wright. The latter is a saxophone player’s saxophone player. He has a solo record on the same label as this release that is worth checking out. Foster has played and recorded with Leila Bordreuil. And I reviewed his solo record The Industrious Tongue Of Michael Foster. Jacob Wick has recorded with Claire Rousay, among many others. This is their sophomore release, I think, according to Discogs. Five pieces in forty minutes with faux Old English titles that are quite literally the sound of the music they make. It is very impressionistic and, at times, very sparse and more timbre-oriented, with the occasional melodic run in both melody instruments. It’s refreshing music and the bass is not missed. The title refers to the carnival, the three days of abundance before the six weeks of Lent. This music is fascinating to listen to but not Spouse Friendly. Bennett uses all kinds of appliances to get overtones from the metal parts of his drum kit in a very creative way. And the other two use all extended techniques possible to get the sound they want. There are no accidental byproducts of experimenting. These guys know exactly what they are doing to significant effect. The recording, mixing and mastering are Superdry, adding to the atmosphere of the music and highlighting the wet sounds of both wind instruments. Again, a great release by Relative Pitch Records. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/horizons-held-close

DAVID CORDERO – POSTALES (CD by Dronarivm)

I planned to say nothing about the most depressing day of the year, the third Monday in January, which coincides with a new chief in command delivering his speech. Up until that point, it was another cold and grey January day, nothing out of the ordinary, and I pride myself on not succumbing to depression (or let me talk in them). The new chief, however, did his best, and much like a joyride on a rollercoaster, I felt pretty sick afterwards. I heard David Cordero’s ‘Postales’ CD earlier today and wasn’t sure if I should write about it today or later this week. But this issue could use some words, and I could use something that soothes the senses. “For this new record, I’ve been inspired by some of the most breathtaking landscapes in Spain. These are 11 tracks where, like musical postcards, I’ve tried to reflect the beauty of the Irati Forest in Navarra, the Flysh of Zumaia in Gipuzkoa, the Albufera of Valencia, the Gorafe desert in Granada or the Somiedo natural park in Asturias, among other amazing places.” The CD comes with postcards from these places, and while the music borders on the new age edge, I find the music is the perfect antidote for a mad, mad world—soft, tinkling bell-like sounds or treated piano melodies with some nicely added reverb. Curtains were already closed and I turned up the heating some more, now that we don’t bother with climate change anymore, and cracked open a bottle of cold white wine. I closed my eyes and imagined I was in Spain. I slowly drift away, music as an escape plan. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/music

ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO – NUNC (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
STYLIANOS OU – VUKOLIKA TRAGOUDIA (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
NLC & WOLF CITY – TURNING SHADOW INTO TRANSIENT BEAUTY (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
TACET TACET TACET – FICKLE (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)

Much like Manuel Mota, whose latest CD I reviewed last week, I very much enjoy the releases of Spanish composer Alfredo Costa Monteiro (although he is originally from Porto, Portugal), and, like Mota, I have yet never met the man or seen him perform a concert. Monteiro’s work falls into territories such as improvisation, sound art, and installation music, and many of these have drone-like aspects. Sometimes, he uses real instruments, primarily the accordion and guitar; sometimes, he uses objects. That’s the case on the new album, ‘Nunc’ (I don’t know what that means), along with oscillators and feedback (as it says on the cover). He created a 40-minute piece here, and I believe he did this at home, but somehow, it also sounds very much like a concert recording. It’s hard to pinpoint why I think this. Maybe it’s the sometimes swift changes within the piece, the occasional recurrence of very high-pitched sound (which the first time may have been a mistake, but following Eno’s oblique strategy, ‘if you make a mistake, repeat it’ (I am paraphrasing here, too lazy to find the right card), but it could be intentional). It’s also the sound of this piece, very much within a space (gallery, concert hall), picking up the amplification reflections and making these parts of the piece. It’s a top-heavy drone piece but one that moves around a lot. It sounds similar superficially, but even without too much concentration, you know it’s not the same piece. However, listen more closely; you will notice this piece’s many alterations. It’s perhaps not something you haven’t heard from Monteiro before; still, it’s another excellent work from the master in his field.
The other new release by Attenuation Circuit leads to some head-scratching. I have no idea who Stylianos Ou is, and I understand he plays modular synths, Tunisian horn Mizuad, Cretan lyra (“played unorthodoxly), vocoders, snare drums, distorted lutes, mandolins, mallets and “even iron bells from sheep and other shepherd’s objects gathered”. That ties in with the theme because the title translates as ‘The Shepherd’s Songs’, about wild and primitive life in the mountains of Crete. The tracks are called postcards and are named after various animals. The press text (also on the cover) mentions these “sound fragments are contradicting and monotonous”. That’s not how I perceive the six pieces here, spanning 21 minutes of music. Similarly, I could easily believe this is one musician with a sampler, sampling many weird sounds and playing these somewhat chaotically, adding some voice occasionally. What these words are about, I don’t know, but I can say the same for the music. There is indeed some kind of animalistic approach here, a sort of Foetus meets gothic music and improvisation meeting plunderphonics, which I find not very easy to twist my head around. Not bad, but it is not my cup of tea, and I keep thinking I am missing something, but I can’t figure out what it is.
Julien Ash’s NLC has a long history; his recent music came via Attenuation Circuit. I believe his music deals with synthesisers and sequencers, but that’s not easy to note in some of his collaborations. One clear example is his work with Wolf City, “from the western suburbs of Paris. It is described as a solo project and a post-rock thing. That’s what he (?) brings to the table: lots of guitars, up to a point where I thought there were only guitars. But there’s also a bit of violin, drums, and vocals (also mentioned are flute and saxophone, both very difficult to hear), and the label calls these songs rather than ‘pieces’. It makes it less easy to identify NLC’s parts because whatever synthesisers, samples and sequences are in here, they are buried. Unless, of course, NLC uses samples of guitars, violins and drums. The production is again excellent, with a massive wall of sound approach. The post-rock element is part of the rockist approach here, sometimes unfolding to plain rock and even metal. Well… what do I know about rock and metal? Not a lot, if anything at all. I’d love to give a reference point; it sounds like such and so band, but I don’t know any. The vocals are more a parlando short of thing, which may not be very metal music-like. It all sounds good, but I can only remotely relate to it. The seven pieces on this release cover a musical ground that isn’t mine, even in its more ambient and post-rock approach.
Behind Tacet Tacet Tacet, we find Francesco Zedde, who sometimes also performs as Tonto, from Utrecht, The Netherlands. Tacet means, [hello wiki]: Tacet is Latin, which translates literally into English as “(it) is silent”. It is a musical term to indicate that an instrument or voice does not sound, also known as a rest.” John Cage famously used it in 4’33 to suggest silence for all instruments in all three parts of the piece. Cage used silence as a way of listening to the environment. What this has to do with Zedde’s music kind of eludes me; he “assembles sounds in a way that lets musical structures emerge from the ambient noises themselves. Almost subliminally, the listener experiences a transition from small noisy sounds to rhythms and, eventually, melodies – and back again.” The results are something I didn’t expect based on this text. The opening piece, ‘Gamble’, starts as a piece of improvised percussion music, and one could think this goes into Cageian territory. However, quickly this piece goes into a completely different direction, that of ambient, techno and music heavily relying on rhythm. Don’t get me wrong; the starting point and the text do not blow me away, but I love the music. These are intense compositions, not too straightforward techno-like, but the intelligent kind, without being too IDM. The ambient part plays a significant role via synthesisers and extensive use of sound effects, crushed samples, glitches and such. Maybe there is some kind of nifty improvisational tool behind this, but it all sounds damn coherent. I don’t know about suitability for a dancefloor; I somehow doubt that, but this certainly made my head nod and feet tap. (FdW)
––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/

STRAPPING YOUNG BUCKS – O (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)

Where do you begin when there is no beginning, no ending and sometimes not even a middle part? We start with going through the interwebz and find out that behind Strapping Young Bucks is K-Herring 1, about whom we couldn’t find a lot either. It’s Daniel Roland from British Columbia, and his sounds are weird. The four tracks on his Bandcamp page are combined into a release on Inner Demons Records, and they snuggly fit on their favourite 3″ CDr format. And what connects the tracks is their general weirdness.
Daniel added a little text on his personal Bandcamp to explain what the tracks are(not) about. The opener, “Froggy Style”, emphasises the general weirdness: ‘Frogs need love. Well, maybe they need flies, but they need love too. Stop judging them because they’re slimy and gross.’ So yeah, for the visualisers amongst us, take that! Another explanation worth mentioning we find at “Pissed Off Pussies”. ‘Women are becoming more like men, and men are becoming more like animals.’ And even when I’m a bit sceptic about the difference between men and women (we’re all humanoids, after all), that second part is becoming too truthful these days.
Musically, it’s a fun release by someone who will not stick to expected patterns, sounds, song structures and obligatory guidelines. And that is what experimentation is all about. This one made me smile. (BW)
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

SVEN PHALANX – NAVIGATION (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)

This is not the first time the word phalanx has been mentioned in Vital Weekly, which is not strange because we all have several of them in our bodies. It’s also not the first time Sven Phalanx is mentioned in the Vital; colleague FdW reviewed a collaboration between Sven and Brainquake on Attenuation Circuit in 2022. That review ended with a most enjoyable release in all its grimness, even when it is outside my comfort zone and considers me interested: What does it take to take someone with his experience there? So, that earlier release is now on my want list, and I’ll try it at some point.
“Navigation” is a 5 track mini album, if I should label it in a way. Five tracks based on the music I listened to several years before, but instead of being stuck in the past, Sven is taking everything into the present. So, it does not sound like old stuff, even though you can hear that his background is in songs and structures from the past. This goes for everyone, I suppose because we’ve become what we’ve listened to, which is a good thing. Nice sounding use of guitar and feedback patterns, proper delay and loops; here and there may be an itsy bitsy overuse of pads, but that only emphasises a particular 90’s EBM feel. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, even though it’s also outside my comfort zone, as it was when I discovered power noise and drones.
It will not be long until someone ‘discovers’ Mr Phalanx, and he’ll get to develop his sound into something more danceable or creepy ambient. Both will be worth it. (BW)
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

STOLEN LIGHT – UNPREPARED GUITAR (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)

I don’t have to tell you about music being written for prepared piano or anything like that. The most influential composers ever did that, and so much has been written about that. So I’m skipping that introduction while I’m listening to pieces for ‘Unprepared Guitar’ by our friend Brett Lunceford from Stolen Light / Goose / Zaftig Because, in the same way, you can prepare an instrument and play something, you can also lice the moment and see what an unprepared instrument brings you, and manipulate it while you are doing the activities that you would have done otherwise to make it a prepared instrument … I mean, something like that …
We’re looking at the promo text: ‘The sound source is just as it says: a guitar with a lot of junk on it. No overdubs or processing other than a mixer. Equipment includes a First Act guitar with one broken string, paper clips, metal chain, scrap metal, back massager, and other junk.’ And with this set-up Brett recorded three tracks, two of which just got a number and a third one which got the meaningful title “Did You Even Use a Guitar on Those Tracks?” And I must admit, in those first two tracks, covering 20 minutes, you can not trace any guitar sound, while in the third one, it’s as if Brett plucks a few strings in combination with previously found sounds to say, ‘even though you don’t believe me, here’s the proof!’
Massive noise, not really a composition but a great thing to listen to and clean your ears. (BW)
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

THE HATERS – PUINHOOP (cassette by Korm Plastics D)

The Haters never have been on my noise screen a lot. Occasionally, I’ve heard some of their work, which I thought was okay but perhaps a bit too minimal and conceptual for my private consumption. Possibly in concert, this would sound great. ‘Puinhoop, which translates to ‘mess’, or more literally ‘heap of rubble’, is a re-issue of an older Korm Plastics cassette, and when I looked on Discogs, I discovered more information on the original cassette than there was to be found new one. The new one vaguely mentions two concerts on side A and a radio performance on side B, whereas the original cover specifies dates and places. The first concert took place on the 1st of December 1989 at Centrum Netwerk in Aalst/Belgium. Oddly this was not far away from where I grew up, but I missed the gig due to simply being unaware. Also, I hadn’t delved very deep into noise back then. The second show at Staalplaat in Amsterdam happened eight days later and Staalplaat was also behind this lovely packaged re-issue (there’s wood with letters burned around the cassette box).
The radio performance was at Radio Rataplan, Nijmegen, on the 28th of November, 1989. Vital’s chief provided some extra information, as he was behind the original release and a member of The Haters on all three pieces. Apparently, Haters’ GX Jupitter-Larsen regularly stayed in Europe in those years, and they would perform together by smashing up wooden crates and bottles, sometimes to a backing tape. On the Netwerk performance, we also hear some electronic manipulation, which takes the virulent harsh noise edge off and gives us a lovely sort of weirdo ambient music. On the Staalplaat recording, there is the backing tape humming away, and the two Haters seem to take a while before they commence their demolishing act. It’s almost a composition, not merely a mindless barrage of thrashing pots and pans; the whole thing has a clear structure.
Another composition is to be found on the flip side. Four simultaneous voices read texts, and sometimes there is a bit of Haters noise (a car crash, static noise, conveyor belt from the dump). I understand these texts are from Jupitter-Larsen’s booklet ‘Final’, consisting of repeated phrases, which makes the reading difficult, but hearing this works very fine—a sort of radio play (Hörspiel) of a highly abstract nature. I don’t know if this cassette is a typical work for The Haters, but I found it surprisingly musical for a noise release, especially the second side. (LW)
––– Address: https://kormplasticsd.bandcamp.com/album/the-haters-puinhoop

PACIFIC WALKER – BLESSED IN THE CHAPEL OF THE TEARS (CRYING) (cassette by Bluesanct)

This is their second release, and there is still little information about Pacific Walker. Well, nothing. The sparse words refer to ‘they’, so there is more than one person, but that’s it. However, Discogs mentions one member, Michael Tapscott, but clicking on the first release, I read “Written By – Isaac Edwards (tracks: All), Michael Tapscott (tracks: All), Raphi Gottesman (tracks: All)”. Well, whatever! Bluesanct says we have to file this under “mycelial folk, cosmic whispers, outsider new age” (wiki: “Mycelium (pl.: mycelia)[a] is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads.” One learns something every day). The information also says that it sounds like “Odawas, Cluster, Ted Lucas, Telepath, Stars of the Lid, Fennesz, Roy Montgomery”, again a learning curve as I don’t know Odawas, Ted Lucas and Telepath, but the others I do know and like. We’re in reverb-drenched space guitar land here: psychedelic music, with mumbling voices in a massive space, some tinkling on the guitars and ghostly effects to further space out the listener. I couldn’t figure out the mycelial folk part of the music, but the music whispers, and luckily, I didn’t detect anything new age in this music, outsider or insider. The view here at the VW HQ has been grey and cloudy, seemingly for weeks now, and it’s not easy to see the music as something that fits that somewhat depressing scenery or enjoy it as a soundtrack to dream about sunny meadows in breezy springtime. I think the latter works best; it’s always wise to keep hope for a brighter future (not just the temperature but also, in general terms, global and all). (FdW)
––– Address: https://drekka.bandcamp.com/

O.R.D.U.C. – EU24 (cassette by Motok)

Motok releases a yearly report under the banner of Elektrik Underground, with new music from the many guises of Nico Selen, best known for his O.R.D.U.C. project. 2024 was a different year as O.R.D.U.C. was the only project to record new music; Selen provides no reason for silence on the other projects. We should see these reports as a status update, what we are working on, and not a complete new album. This cassette is short, 12 minutes only and contains for pieces. Selen says one of these pieces will be on the next O.R.D.U.C. album, scheduled for this year, while the other three will appear in a different on other projects. I know O.R.D.U.C. as a somewhat quirky electronic pop band, but these four pieces don’t have that rhythm machine start, sequenced synths and Selen’s singing/parlando. Only opener ‘Leaders’ goes slightly in that direction. But here, too, there is an atmospheric quality which all four pieces have. ‘Amend’ is more a drone-like piece of music, with a touch of noise, via some distorted guitar. The two tracks on the other side have the fragility of old reel-to-reel machines. Unstable frequencies loop with glitches and a finely looped guitar sound in’ Quint’. It’s also the only instrumental song on this short cassette. ‘Podróż’ is a song with a text in Polish. As said, 12 minutes, which is a pity, and there are only 12 copies available, so local for these in Antenne Record Shop, Sound Unbound Recordstore, and Diskz. Motok still has no Bandcamp page, so obtaining a digital copy is impossible. Still, these four pieces holds a great promise for future releases. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.orduc.com/ https://www.motok.org/